


in times of early mornings

by orphan_account



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-02
Updated: 2010-11-02
Packaged: 2017-10-28 18:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/310722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: anonymous letter</p>
            </blockquote>





	in times of early mornings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lacygrey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lacygrey/gifts).



A great many things change in a matter of years. People grow up. They grow old. They grow apart, they grow together.

Akira doesn't sleep very much these days; unlike Hikaru, who enjoys a lie-in every morning, Akira rises with the sun. He does his exercises, keeping the body in shape just as it does the mind. Then he bathes, and eats a leisurely breakfast on the patio.

The house is his parents' old house, and it will be his child's, one day, when he dies. Maybe not so long in the future now. Akira looks at the birds in their nests, begging their parents to bring them food, little chirping noises, and isn't afraid. Death is just the next wonderful adventure.

Today, however. Today is not a day to die. Today is September 20. The day Hikaru was born, the day the world was given the gift that is Hikaru's intelligence and laughter and sharp game of Go. The day when, twenty years after his birth, Hikaru decided to take that step, the step that got them here.

Akira takes it out every year on this day. It's hidden in a little metal box in the safe where they keep some other oddities, next to his late mother's most precious jewelry, waiting to be handed over to Akira's son's little girl when she turns eighteen. The envelope has been changed a great number of times, but the letter inside remains the same.

Akira reads it, every morning on this date, sitting on the patio with a bowl of Oolong tea, sipping and smiling and remembering.

 

 _"This is your handwriting," Akira said with both a feeling of deep derision in his chest, and hope, blossoming suddenly, a sensation of rightness and oh, of course, of course that's what had been missing all along, how could he have not noticed?_

 _Hikaru flushed to the roots of his hair and said, "No it isn't." Even though it clearly was. He was staring at the letter like it was poisonous, and then, softer, like it contained something precious._

 _Much more precious than jewelry, it contained his heart. Akira realized it suddenly, beyond the jeering at the clumsy plot, or the incredulous surprise that this was another _boy_ writing him, because that boy wasn't just any boy._

 _Akira felt himself soften as well. He looked at Hikaru anew, catching his gaze, holding it with his own. "If it was..." he said._

 

Footsteps on the patio make Akira's head rock up. Hands rest on his shoulders, fingers lovingly entwined with the whitened strands of hair. Hikaru's warm, still a little flushed from sleep, creases on his cheeks. His mouth curls into a smile when he sneaks a glance over Akira's shoulder at the letter.

"Still have that silly piece of paper?" Hikaru asks, kissing his cheek, already apologizing for what's clearly an affront to all Akira holds dear.

Akira turns his head and kisses him on the lips gently. "Always," he says.

"Ah," Hikaru says, and nods. "You are one to hold on to things." Then he's grinning, big and young, just like Hikaru at any age, and hops up, awakening more with each passing second. "Wanna play?" he asks.

And when Akira just nods and smiles and says, "You should at least have some tea, it's chilly out here," Hikaru replies, "Later, later, first we play Go, if we don't the world will collapse, you know it will. When are the little ones coming over, do you know?"

And he's off, rambling and tapping his fingers on the board and his foot is jiggling, and Akira just watches him, because nothing ever changes.

 

\- - - - -

  
written November 2010 for [Kiss Bingo](http://go-hedgehog.livejournal.com/990.html).


End file.
